Gearbox beat Aspyr and Paradox to Homeworld IP

Randy Pitchford, the boss of developer Gearbox, has revealed further details of the acquisition of the Homeworld licence from THQ.

Polygon reports that Pitchford told a PAX Australia Gearbox panel audience that his studio had to fend off interest from two publishers in the final auction – Paradox Interactive and Aspyr Media, the latter of which bid $1.3m.

When THQ started to evaporate, Brian [Farrell, THQ CEO] kept coming to my office everyday and saying, 'Hey Randy, you got to get Homeworld.'” Pitchford stated. So we became part of that process bidding on the brand.”

Pitchford added that Relic founder Alex Garden contacted him after the auction to express his relief that Homeland had been acquired by a developer as opposed to a publisher.

"We did a couple of rounds, we put in initial bids and we had to put money in an escrow account that the people were auctioning off all the THQ properties were given a look at to see if we were good for it," Pitchford added. "We couldn't just raise a card up ‘number 23, we'll put down a million,' you actually had to put the money in to show it.”